Gridfinity Modular Baseplates

This is a remix of the gridfinity baseplates by josh.hall - https://bit.ly/JHGridfinityBaseplates who did an awesome job with his version of the baseplates.

Versions

The modular baseplates come in two versions:

1. Baseplates that can attach to a metal surface magnetically and use screws from the bottom and hex nuts. 
   
    
2. Baseplates that cannot attach to a metal surface magnetically and use screws from the top. 
   

General usage

You can print any of the baseplates and screw them together with a m3x8 screw (BHCS) and a m3 hex nut. This modularity has a lot of advantages. It gives you the possibility to create a custom grid design, that holds together nicely without the need of glueing it to the surface it sits on. You can later on remove the connection and reassemble the baseplates to your liking, saving you from reprinting baseplates. Also you can print smaller modules on smaller printers and assemble it to a huge grid. The baseplate assembled this way is fully compatible with the standard gridfinity containers.

Both variants are designed to use ferromagnetic screws (and hex nuts) to act as magnetic counterparts for bins with magnets on the bottom. This saves you from the tedious task of getting the magnetic polarity right on all bins you equip with magnets. They just will stick to the ferromagnetic screws, no matter what orientation the magnets are in. Also ferromagnetic screws are mostly cheaper than magnets.

Version 1 - Baseplates that attach magnetically to a metal surface

If you don't want to glue your baseplates to a (metal) surface they will sit on like a metal tool organizer, but you still want to have them firmly attached to it, this variant is for you. 

Top view of a 1x1 plate with magnets scewed in:

Bottom view of a 1x1 plate with magnets screwed in:

Improvements over the original model

• Countersunk magnets 8x3mm with an m3 hole can be screwed in from the bottom to secure the baseplate on a metal surface
• Holes that are not used for magnets can act as a ferromagnetic counterpart for magnetic gridfinity bins
• The holes are designed in a way that they will print cleanly without support

The magnets are not glued in. They are screwed in from the bottom with a m3x8 screw (FHCS) and secured with a m3 nut from the top. You can use as many mangets as you like for the baseplate. And you can rearrange and reuse the magnets as often as you like.

All holes that you don't want to fill with magnets you can use a m3x6 screw from the bottom and a m3 hex nut from the top. If you use ferromagnetic screws and hex nuts bins with magnets will attach to the basepaltes.

Variant 2 - Tapered holes

If you don't have a metal surface where you want to place your baseplates this version is for you. You also don't need hex nuts to secure the ferromagnetic screws, you just can screw them into the plastic from the top.

Improvements over the original model

• Tapered holes that allow easy usage of m3x6 flat head coutersunk screws (FHCS)

The baseplates the remix is based on only offer a chamfer to hold the screws. That did not work for me at all. So I designed tapered holes that will it make super easy to screw in m3x6 flat head coutersunk screws (FHCS). The length of the screw from head to tip should be 6mm.

Improvements for both Variants - Chamfers

I added a chamfer on the bottom and a chamfer on the top of the baseplates as these two places are the most common places where excess material bulges out. With the chamfers the baseplates screw together much cleaner.

Files

I added a selection of stl and step files. With this selection the most common grid sizes should be easy to assemble and should fit on most printers.

A big thanks goes to Roads (https://www.printables.com/social/456322-roads/about), who had the initial idea of the magnet based version.

Attribution

This is a remix of the gridfinity baseplates by josh.hall - https://bit.ly/JHGridfinityBaseplates 

It has several improvements over the original desing:

• The baseplates can now attach to a metal surface. The original baseplates only can magnetically attach to bins, but not to the surface they sit on.
• Screws and hexnuts can not only be used to attach the modular baseplates together, but they can be used as magnetic counterparts to the bins instead of magnets.
• The new baseplates print cleaner and can attach cleaner to each other
• The non magnetic version offers specially designed holes to have an improved user experience during assembly of the screws.